


A quick word on cannibalism in the Hunger Games

by TerresDeBrume



Series: Meta crossposts [6]
Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Cannibalism, Gen, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-05
Updated: 2016-04-05
Packaged: 2018-05-31 10:06:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6466114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TerresDeBrume/pseuds/TerresDeBrume
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a crosspost of one of my Metas from my personnal blog--just for safekeeping. I wrote it in December of 2015 and it's kind of messy but I'm still hoping to go back to it, some day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A quick word on cannibalism in the Hunger Games

Okay this title kind of makes it sound like you’re going to get a clean, well-done essay but actually it’s mostly just me trying to sort through stuff so I can, hopefully, clean things up more easily later on and do actual meta about food in the Hunger Games.

In the meantime, let’s discuss that year where one of the tributes decided it was a good idea to eat people’s heart.

**Obviously: tw for non-graphic discussion of Cannibalism**

> _I spend the night in and out of a doze, imagining the cutting remarks I will make to Peeta Mellark in the morning. Peeta Mellark. We will see how high and mighty he is when he’s faced with life and death. He’ll probably turn into one of those ragin beasts tributes, the kind who tries to eat someone’s heart after they’ve killed them. There was a guy like that a few years ago from District 6 called Titus. He went completely savage and the Gamemakers had to have him stunned with electric guns to collect the bodies of the players he’d killed before he ate them. There are no rules in the arena, but cannibalism doesn’t play well with the Capitol audience, so they tried to head it off. There was some speculation that the avalanche that finally took Titus out was specifically engineered to ensure the victor was not a lunatic. (Chapter 10, p. 173)  
> _

Honestly, the reason I want to talk about this passage–and the reason why, at the moment, I think it might become the opening to a longer piece of meta I may write someday about food in THG, is because this is the logical culmination of the Hunger Games and the way they work.

 

As I mentionned in my previous posts on the topic (see my brand new [_Food in the Hunger Games_](http://terresdebrume.tumblr.com/tagged/food-in-the-hunger-games)tag) food and hunger are at the center of the novel in more ways than one.

First, it’s extremely important to Katniss, who has always been starving or close to starvation. The beginning of THG draws rather clear emotional connections between the presence/absence of food and whether she feels happy or not. This, of course, gets a lot more complex once she reaches the Capitol, and it deserves its own post, so I won’t expand too much on that here.  
Secondly, food and hunger are also at the very core of Panem’s equilibrium and Coriolanus Snow’s power.

 

The thing is, the only reason the Capitol manages to keep its position is because pretty much everyone else is starving–and those who aren’t pay for their food in the form of obedience, by being “the Capitol’s lapdogs” (Katniss’ words). Even people in positions of relative power (12′s mayor, the peacekeepers, the baker) rely on Gale & Katniss’ hunting to make their lives better– _no one_ outside the Capitol can afford to not think about food, even those who, like Madge, don’t have to gamble their own lives for a meager bit of grain and oil.  
Food is the payment the Districts get for losing two kids every year, and it works because it’s a payment they can’t afford to lose. Food, in Panem, very much equals power–both political and physical. Katniss herself mentions this when she talks about how “a lifetime of having enough to eat” made Peeta strong, and how the Careers are only stronger than everybody else because their get food and training.

In this context, eating something or throwing it out is never a casual gesture (see Katniss’ making a point of eating with her fingers after Effie comments on past tributes’ manners, or her throwing out the cookies Peeta’s father gave her) and neither is eating the tributes, who are metaphorical ‘food’ to be consumed by the people of the Capitol.

[Ritual cannibalism](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCannibalism%23Reasons&t=NzcxNmY5N2QwNWQ4NGIwZTZjMWFmMGU5YWQ0YjU3NzRhMDg0MDIxNixqZDVuY2t0Nw%3D%3D) has been a well-documented practice throughout history, in several cases because it was believed to help the eater get some of the qualities/strengths of the eatee (the heart in particular but other vital organs like the liver as well). Sometimes it was also a way to help the deceased souls’ to reach the afterlife.

 

Going from there, the fact that Titus ate the heart of tributes–who are supposed to belong entirely to the Capitol up until they’re shipped home in their box–appears like a logical culmination of the powerplay surrounding food in the books. The Capitol ‘eats’ the Districts and their children (they even call the ceremonial ‘Reaping’ like they’re ripe grain) to steal their power/energy and keep them manageable.  
When Titus starts eating other tributes, what he’s doing is a symbolical way of eating in the Capitol’s plate–he’s stealing their food and their power, both by finding nourishment that wasn’t _given_ to him, and by turning the games into a disgusting, disturbing experience for the Capitolites. And the Capitol can’t have that, so it kills him.

 

Because, to paraphrase [@trovia](http://tmblr.co/me8q0DuFJo5DzlVkXAxkCeA), if the games are disgusting and disturbing, then there’s something wrong about them, and if there’s something wrong about the Games, then there’s something wrong about having them, which leads to people not wanting them anymore, which leads to rebellion.

And Snow can’t have that.

 

As a last note–I’m sure it’s been noted before that Coriolanus Snow is a reference to Shakespeare’s [_Coriolanus_](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FCoriolanus&t=OTU2OWE5MmMwM2ZhYjQyMmRhMzM2OGRlNjk5ODNkMjUxNzE4Y2EwMixqZDVuY2t0Nw%3D%3D) in which a general wins a war, tries (and fails) to go in politics and, later on, tries to secure power by force which ultimately leads to his death.

Personally, I think Titus’ name here is a reference to another Shakespeare tragedy, [_Titus Andronicus_](http://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTitus_Andronicus%23Synopsis&t=YjlmYzE3ZmRkM2ZkYzkwNDJkZGUyZGJiM2M2ZjM3ZjNjNTgxODc3OCxqZDVuY2t0Nw%3D%3D) in which the titular character gets caught in a series of slights and revenge, leading to several cases of murder/mutilation, sneaky cannibalism, and pretty much everyone’s rather gruesome death.

 

Unfortunately, having read neither of these plays, I can’t really comment on deeper literary parallels, but the thematic relations are pretty clear, in my opinion.


End file.
